Last year, Notre Dame believed it should have had a chance to play for a national championship. The College Football Playoff selection committee ultimately disagreed.
This year, the Irish want to leave no doubt. They want to make it impossible for the committee to leave them out; they want to make sure they’re nowhere near the bubble. Notre Dame can and should be one of the very best teams in the country this year. The Irish are a popular preseason pick to win the national title, and quarterback CJ Carr is the preseason favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.
Expectations couldn’t be any higher for the Irish, but there are plenty of reasons to justify the hype. The roster is loaded with future NFL talent on both sides of the ball, with Carr the headliner of the offense and cornerback Leonard Moore arguably the best defender in the nation.
The schedule is quite favorable, with the three toughest games spaced out nicely in the second half of the season (BYU, Miami and SMU). The latter two are home games for Notre Dame. It’s possible the Irish will be favored in every regular-season game they play this fall.
As long as they take care of business against opponents they should beat handily, the season will come down to a few high-stakes matchups, which will turn into the moments that determine whether the ceiling for this team is, indeed, a national championship. Notre Dame hasn’t won one of those since 1988.
“You can talk about being a thing, or you can work to try to be that thing,” coach Marcus Freeman said on the Triple Option podcast earlier this summer. “And that’s what we have to do.”
He said he didn’t want talk of a national championship overshadowing the work that is required to win football games. You can’t fast-forward to the end of the season, nor can you overlook any individual opponent along the way.
“It’s not daydreaming about these lofty expectations. It’s taking advantage of what you have, and that’s right today,” Freeman said. “That’s the work that must be put in — the intentional work.”
Freeman doesn’t really want to keep talking about last season’s CFP snub or the early-season losses to Miami and Texas A&M that ultimately doomed the Irish. When Freeman or his coaches are asked about the idea of a revenge tour or using last season’s snub as motivation for the coming season, they downplay it.
“Stop worrying about the Playoff,” Freeman said last month. “Stop talking about it.”
Talk, instead, about facing Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in the opener, which will air on NBC on Sunday night. Worry, instead, about the Badgers’ new quarterback, Colton Joseph, who comes over from Old Dominion. Focus on a team that knows its head coach is squarely on the hot seat and could use a massive upset.
There’s always something to work on, a new challenge ahead. Notre Dame is replacing two running backs who were drafted in the first round of April’s NFL draft. The Irish will expect more from Carr, heading into his second season as the full-time starting quarterback, and the receiving corps.
And even though the CFP changed its policies to ensure that Notre Dame is granted a Playoff spot if it finishes in the top 12 of the final rankings, there really isn’t much wiggle room for a team this talented and a schedule with few opportunities for resume-defining wins.
The only way for Notre Dame to truly leave no doubt? No losses.
But Freeman wouldn’t want anyone to talk like that. One day at a time, one game at a time. Stack the days, stack the wins and see where it puts his team come December. That’s the most the Irish can do, and it’s their best path forward.
